One of the advantages of a shorter trip to Rwanda (like my first two times) is that I can pretty easily pack enough clothes for the week and just do laundry when I get home. I knew this was a luxury I would not be able to afford, though I admit I hadn’t thought the whole thing through. One thing I was smart enough to bring was a clothesline. Otherwise I just kinda figured I would work it out once I got here.
Well, I got here, and my clean laundry supply was exhausted. Please understand that I am not talking about American standards, where you wear a short for one day or even half a day and then through it in the dirty laundry. No, I had already put shirts through a couple of days and had some things that I had sweated in pretty good. Besides that, you can only stretch your sock and underwear supply so long before something has to give.
When I was interviewing high school students last week, one of them mentioned that one of her chores was to wash clothes. I was suddenly engaged. “How exactly DO you do laundry,” I asked, trying to sound like I was asking on behalf of the Abana Foundation and not trying to figure it out myself. She (along with Basa, who was kind of interpreting but also throwing her own two cents in) described a process of rubbing the clothes with a bar of soap in one basin of water, then kind of rinsing it in a second basin of water, before a final rinse in a third basin of water.
Well, I only have two basins. But, frankly a third basin sounded a bit extravagant to me anyway, so I figured I was good to go. It occurred to me that the order matters. Probably ought to do shirts before socks and underwear. Not sure which is worse–socks or underwear–still haven’t completely decided that one. I had a bar of bath soap in hand, and was ready for action!
There is a rack with some pegs on one end of my room. I tied the clothesline to one of the pegs, and then threaded it through a loop on the mosquito netting you can see above my bed (I used the netting the first few nights I was here, but since I am now current on my anti-malaria meds and haven’t seen a skeeter in over a week, I have discontinued use). At the netting the clothesline takes a 90 degree turn and is tied to a lever thing that adjusts the window (just around the corner in this picture).
As you can see, I am two shirts in at this point and now I have a new problem. The weight of the shirts is pulling on the netting. Only two shirts in!
This nail is the only thing holding the netting in place, and as you can see from the picture, it is getting pulled at a pretty good angle. I decided that the nail is not likely to give out on me, but at the same time I probably ought to adjust my expectations and move past shirts (I ended up washing three) and at least get some socks washed (I REALLY needed clean socks). I figured socks don’t hardly weigh anything at all.
I now have three clean and dry tshirts, and six pair of clean socks. Yesterday I washed and dried all of my underwear. It is a little funny to come back to my room at the end of the day and have a clothesline full of undies drying, but that’s what I gotta do!
I told Jill last night that it is oddly satisfying to dump out the water at the end of a laundry session and see how dirty the water is. At least I feel like I had accomplished something.
One last point and then I will go to bed. I don’t remember who it was or even how long ago I read it, but some spiritual writer (pretty sure a classical writer from over a hundred years ago) was talking about the value of suffering. In this particular text, the author made the statement to the effect that if a washcloth doesn’t occasionally get wrung out, it will begin to get pretty smelly. No kidding, as I was sitting on that chair bent over the basins, that reading came back to me. And so sure enough, I made extra sure to wring as much water out of my clothes as possible so they wouldn’t get stinky. Some spiritual dude was trying to make a point on suffering, and he really he was just delivering a lesson to me on proper laundering techniques. God works in funny ways!
Hope your clothes are smelling fresh today. God bless us all.
One response to “Laundry Day”
Great following your days. I have been touched by your writings. Your work is inspiring. Well done Tom.
Quick question. I only see two shirts on the clothesline. You mentioned having to wear a shirt for two days. Doing some rough math of when you left the USA, could it possible that you wore the same shirt more than two days? Perhaps this could explain some of the reactions you’ve gotten from the kids and locals? Asking for a friend.